A Trip Dowstairs
by Sturm the Dalek
Summary: Sumia discovers a side to her daughter that Lucina has kept hidden all these years.


_'_ _We need another torch in this hall.'_ , Sumia thought as she walked back to the royal bedchambers with her load. During the day it wouldn't be much of a problem due to the nearby window, but on a cloudy night like this...well, she didn't like the idea of stumbling on a simple midnight kitchen raid. _'_ _I should probably bring it up in the morning.'_

Shaking her head, she knew she couldn't do that. Not quite yet, at least. He'd want to know why she went to the kitchen in the middle of the night, and why she had waited until she _knew_ he was asleep before doing so. Looking down at the tray and it's contents, it wasn't hard to guess why.

Apples, icing, two blueberry muffins, and a bowl of roe (and she HATED roe) No doubt about it, she was pregnant.

 _'I'm like a month along and I've already got the strangest cravings.'_ She'd only figured out she was pregnant this very morning, and she'd spent the whole day trying to find a good moment to tell Chrom. Yet the moment never came.

It wasn't as if he wouldn't be happy-she still ached a bit whenever she thought about his over-joyous bear hug he'd given her the first time she'd told him she was pregnant (no doubt something he'd passed onto Cynthia) He's just got so much on his plate currently. Between Lucina's **need** for gossip, little Lucina's increasingly explorative and independent nature, and Cynthia's upcoming wedding (to Robin, no less), he was being worked to the bone lately. Not to mention Parliament was currently in session, and both she and Chrom hated dealing with those stuffy nobles for a single afternoon, let alone for weeks on end.

Turning a corner, she spotted a guard-Hartnell, no doubt-sitting on a small stool, very clearly dozing off. Annoyed, she picked up an apple and, taking a moment to aim, casually tossed it into his overturned hand, startling him enough to jolt him awake. Noticing where the fruit had come from, he hastily stood and saluted. "Y-you're majesty! Th-"

"Just promise that you won't tell anyone I was out in the middle of the night unescorted and I won't tell my husband about your nap, Hartnell." She knew Chrom would get over-protective. She'd basically spent her first pregnancy being coddled by him, she wasn't going to let that happen again.

Pretty much oblivious to Hartnell's words as she walked on (some sort of apology, she thinks), her thoughts returned to her husband and how she was going to possibly find any time to tell him that she was heavy laden-until she passed the infirmary. About five paces past, she heard a noise coming from inside and froze. Tired and not thinking straight, she turned on her heel and peered inside. She was surprised at who she saw rummaging through the drawers.

"Lucina?", she asked, causing her daughter to straighten up...and whack her head on the shelf above her with a loud and audible _thunk_. "Oh Gods, I-I'm sorry!", she said as she put down the tray she was holding and rushed to her daughters' side. Lucina was clutching her head in pain. "A-are you alright?", she said as she spun her around to look her in the face. Without even having to think, some maternal instinct had instantly told her that something was off. Once she could see Lucina's face, she gasped and her eyes went wide, for it didn't take a trained cleric or even proper lighting to see what.

Her daughter had a deep bleeding gash on her forehead, and a sizable lump on her cheek. Her nose was bleeding slightly, and from the way she winced when Sumia had spun her around, she knew her arms and legs were also hurt fairly badly.

"Gods, Lucina, what happened?!", she gasped as she pushed her daughter over to the nearest cot and made her sit, then rushed over to some cabinets to grab a vulnerary.

"N-nothing! I...uh, I was just...j-just...", Lucina stuttered, obviously struggling to find a convenient explanation for her current condition.

"Don't tell me nothing!", she half-yelled as she took two vulneraries and rushed back to her daughter's side. "You look like you've been beaten up!" Uncorking one of the bottles, she brought it to Lucina's lips and poured some into her mouth, causing Lucina to gag-the stuff always did taste terrible.

Calming down slightly as the gash to Lucina's forehead slowly disappeared and her swollen cheek returned to normal, Sumia handed the bottle to her daughter and put the unopened one onto the cot beside her. Lucina looked sheepishly away from her mother's hard stare as she took another sip of the foul liquid, her arms feeling better almost immediately and the bump forming on her head receding.

Cocking an eyebrow, Sumia walked over to the cabinet again, grabbing a cloth and soaking it in the sink, before returning to her daughter's side and wiping away the blood on her face. "Who did this to you?", she asked gently, concern overflowing in her voice.

"N-no one, I swear!" Lucina was clearly hiding something.

"Then how did you get hurt? You look like I did when I-" Sumia's words died in her throat as she remembered the one time she herself had looked like this. It was years ago, years upon years, but, looking upon her daughter's face, seeing the shame written all over it, there was suddenly no room for doubt.

"Lucina...did you trip and fall down the stairs?", she asked, getting her answer when Lunina's eyes suddenly widened. "G-gods...Lucina, I, YOU tripped?"

Lucina didn't trip-Cynthia tripped, Morgan tripped, little Lucy tripped...but Lucina NEVER tripped. She was too graceful for that. And yet, here was the proof, right in front of her.

"I...may have stumbled in the dark, just a bit...", she barely got out. The look on her face was something Sumia only ever saw on little Lucy's face when she stumbled. It was heartbreakingly full of shame.

"I...I see. Does this happen often?", she prodded carefully. She knew what it was like to be ashamed over this very situation, she didn't want to make her daughter feel worse.

Meeting her mother's eyes, Lucina's pride was thrown to the side as she relaxed slightly. "Y-yes, I, um...trip, quite often. But, no one ever see's it!", she said, the frustration of the last part clear in her voice. She then went sheepish again, thinking she had said a bit too much. Nodding in understanding, Sumia gave a gentle smile as she continued to clean the blood off Lucina's face. "P-please don't tell anyone."

"Tell anyone what, sweetheart?", Sumia said with a wink. Lucina smiled slightly.

"Thank you, mother."


End file.
